Peter Briger Helps us Understand his Industry

When Peter Briger was in university, he knew he would eventually join the world of finance. What he may not have known is that three decades later he would be rubbing shoulders with some of the most influential leaders in the field and in fact get named among the top four hundred most influential business leaders in America by Forbes magazine. This title has not come easy as he has had to prove himself over and over through his leadership skills in all the organizations he has worked for. He went to Princeton University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He would begin working for Goldman Sachs the same years, and within the first ten years, he was already a partner.

At this time, it was already clear that he would become one of the most influential experts in the credit divisions within the bank. He went on to join a number of committees that helped him grow his knowledge and solidify his position with the bank’s ranks. Peter Briger would take a keen interest on the distressed debt market. This was an area that focused on assets that were believed to be on the verge of becoming toxic for the bank if they had already invested or were assets that were considered almost failing even when the bank had not invested in them but for one reason or another had taken an interest in.

This expertise in the area saw Peter Briger get called up to become an advisor to the International Finance Corporation. In 2002 after working at the Bank for approximately fifteen years, he was headhunted by Fortress. This was an asset management group that had opened its doors in 1998 and had shown great promise as an upcoming private equity group. He understood that even though they were only managing three billion dollars in assets quite a small amount compared to what Goldman had it presented massive growth opportunities for him. Peter Briger is today the Co-CEO at fortress and a partner. He also continues to lead their credit division based in San Francisco.